JCB logo
R&D Systems: New Poster Available
  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF, 1688K)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new content in the JCB
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sadoni, N.
Right arrow Articles by Zink, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sadoni, N.
Right arrow Articles by Zink, D.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/1999/9/1211/ $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 146, Number 6, September 20, 1999 1211-1226

Nuclear Organization of Mammalian Genomes: Polar Chromosome Territories Build Up Functionally Distinct Higher Order Compartments

Nicolas Sadonia, Sabine Langera, Christine Fautha, Giorgio Bernardib, Thomas Cremerc, Bryan M. Turnerd, and Daniele Zinka
a Institut für Anthropologie und Humangenetik, LMU München, 80336 München, Germany
b Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, 80121 Napoli, Italy
c Institut für Anthropologie und Humangenetik, LMU München, 80333 München, Germany
d Chromatin and Gene Expression Group, Department of Anatomy, University of Birmingham Medical School, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Correspondence to: Daniele Zink, Institut für Anthropologie und Humangenetik, LMU München, Goethestrasse 31, 80336 München, Germany. Tel:49-89-5996-617 Fax:49-89-5996-618 E-mail:dani.zink{at}lrz.uni-muenchen.de.

We investigated the nuclear higher order compartmentalization of chromatin according to its replication timing (Ferreira et al. 1997 Down) and the relations of this compartmentalization to chromosome structure and the spatial organization of transcription. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive and integrated view on the relations between chromosome structure and functional nuclear architecture. Using different mammalian cell types, we show that distinct higher order compartments whose DNA displays a specific replication timing are stably maintained during all interphase stages. The organizational principle is clonally inherited. We directly demonstrate the presence of polar chromosome territories that align to build up higher order compartments, as previously suggested (Ferreira et al. 1997 Down). Polar chromosome territories display a specific orientation of early and late replicating subregions that correspond to R- or G/C-bands of mitotic chromosomes. Higher order compartments containing G/C-bands replicating during the second half of the S phase display no transcriptional activity detectable by BrUTP pulse labeling and show no evidence of transcriptional competence. Transcriptionally competent and active chromatin is confined to a coherent compartment within the nuclear interior that comprises early replicating R-band sequences. As a whole, the data provide an integrated view on chromosome structure, nuclear higher order compartmentalization, and their relation to the spatial organization of functional nuclear processes.

Key Words: nuclear architecture, genome organization, chromosome structure, nuclear compartments, polar chromosome territories


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:



  Home | Help | Feedback | Subscriptions | Archive | Search | Table of Contents